LUKE is often considered the Gospel of Prayer. One commentator cited 16 instances in Luke where Christ was praying.

Today’s Gospel from Luke gives us two points on prayer: one, the Lord’s Prayer which some consider as the summary of the Gospels; and two, the parable on prayer.

There are two points I offer for our reflection today. The first: prayer makes us enter a relationship. As Henri Nouwen wrote, “Praying is no easy matter. It demands a relationship in which you allow someone other than yourself to enter into the very center of your person…”

The second point, often attributed to Ignatius of Loyola: pray as if everything depended on you, and work as if everything depended on God.

The Lord’s Prayer clearly defines this relationship we need in prayer—God as our father, who is holy and in heaven, whom we ask to take over our life; let his will be done, give us his grace always, and grant us forgiveness and deliverance from evil.

It is a relationship of trust and surrender, the same relationship of trust portrayed in the parable, which at times can be distorted to make us believe persistence and perseverance alone are needed to earn the granting of our petition.

Confidence

Such persistence and perseverance are born out of trust in our relationship with God, which Fr. Joe Cruz, SJ described as having the confidence that the friend we ask listens to us and, though he may not give us what we ask for, always gives what is best for us.

We are also led to trust in and surrender to the one we pray to. As C. S. Lewis put it, prayer doesn’t change God. Prayer changes us.

This is the wisdom of Ignatius’ “Pray as if everything depended on you,” which requires freedom. It is true that people must earn our trust, but to trust someone is one of the greatest expressions of freedom—to trust is a freedom choice.

We must work hard on this freedom. Yes, it is a grace, but one that we must ask for and allow to enter our life.

This is the Ignatian school of prayer that leads to spiritual freedom, the freedom to make a commitment to love and to follow Christ—a love that trusts and surrenders, knowing it is God who will bring to completion the work he has begun in us.

‘God Knows’

In his 1939 Christmas broadcast, King George VI, father of Queen Elizabeth, and the subject of the award-winning movie, “The King’s Speech,” ended the program with Minnie Haskins’ 1908 poem, “God Knows.” (Thanks to CLK and Fr. Danny Huang, SJ for sharing this story and poem.)

Four months into World War II—which would go on for almost six years, involve over 30 countries and end up with a casualty count of 60 million—King George’s speech, using the poem, is an enduring prayer of trust and surrender during one of the bleakest periods in human history.

“And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year: ‘Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.’ And he replied: ‘Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.’ So I went forth, and finding the Hand of God, trod gladly into the night. And He led me toward the hills and the breaking of day in the lone East.”

‘Just do it’

In December 2015, actor Shia LaBeouf took part in a video art project of Central Saint Martins art college in London. The students were asked to prepare a 30-second video, with a script of no more than 100 words. LeBeouf performed 36 of these scripts. To date, he has close to 19 million views.

One of his performances is considered a top inspirational TED Talk clip: “Just do it! Don’t let your dreams be dreams. Yesterday, you said tomorrow. So just do it! What are you waiting for? Do it! Just do it! Yes, you can! Just do it! If you’re tired of starting over, stop giving up!”

This is the Ignatian “original” version of LaBeouf’s “Just Do It”: “All things I have and all that I am, you have given all to me, to you I return them that you may dispose of me wholly according to your will. Give me only your love and your grace, these make me rich; I ask for nothing more.”

After discovering Christ in our life and understanding God’s will and mission for us in this relationship, “nothing else matters.” After a life of doing, achieving and seeking, we offer back everything to God.

In so doing, this giving back gives us the freedom to give our self totally to God’s work for us, “totus ad laborem,” with the confidence that it is his work and what he has begun in us that he will bring to completion.

Prayer, far from simply a moment of silence and reflection, is so much more. Christ, after spending 40 days in the desert praying and fasting, emerges to begin his ministry and mission.

Christ, in intense prayer in the Agony in the Garden, surrenders to his Father— “not my will, but your will be done”—and from the solitude of prayer, emerges and fulfills his mission.